Early on it appeared that the men’s Division One championship might evade their grasp this year, but ultimately they picked it up later in the campaign to deepen their stack of recent titles.
This culminated in the reigning champions beating early-season foils Savills in Wednesday night’s Beau Sejour battle with a relatively convincing scoreline of 87-69.
Although Skipton are a changed side this season, they got the job done and captain Aaron Walden feels that their hard work in defence has particularly stood out.
‘Every game this season has been extremely competitive, with both Savills and Anytime Fitness pushing us all the way to the finish line,’ he said.
‘While it has been a team effort, both Harry Gent and Daniel Marriott have been instrumental offensively for Skipton, with both averaging 20 points per game.
‘Collectively we work harder than any other team defensively, which has helped us force mistakes, turnovers and outrun the opposition.
‘We hope that we can keep the team together for next season as it feels like we are only just starting to gel.’
He added from a personal perspective: ‘To captain Skipton to six league titles in eight years has been a great privilege and I hope for a few more in the coming seasons.
‘Special thanks to the referees and table officials who give up their time week in, week out.’
Walden joined Marriott and Gent in a three-headed scoring frenzy for Skipton.
The still-young Gent had the biggest game of all for the men in white, scoring 25, with Walden joining Marriott on 23 after a strong individual performance on offence.
However, neither of them could match the sheer impact of Savills’ Ciaran Hamilton and his 29, with leading three-pointer scorer Jason Hooper just one behind.
Skipton opened up strongly with a 21-point first quarter, as opposed to their rivals’ 16.
But their blue-and-yellow opponents came back fighting to establish a marginal 39-38 lead by half-time.
Skipton stepped it up in the second half, though, taking the remaining two quarters 21-13 and 28-17 – despite player-coach Hooper stepping it up and landing a trio of three-pointers – to run out winners and champions.
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